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Best Value Public Policy Master's Degree Schools in Illinois

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2023 Best Value Public Policy Master's Degree Schools in Illinois

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

4 Colleges
$29,862 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$57,597 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Public Policy Master's Degree School for You

In 2020-2021, 536 degrees and certificates were awarded to public policy students who went to a Illinois college or university. This makes it the #60 most popular major in the state.

It's not easy to decide which program to enroll in when you have so many options available. You can choose a traditional brick and mortar school, or with the growth of online education, you can attend a school half-way across the country without even leaving your house. Also there are many trade schools that offer short-term programs that open up more career options.

To help you arm yourself with the information you need to make your decision, Course Advisor has developed this Best Value Public Policy Master's Degree Schools in Illinois ranking. Our analysis looked at 4 schools in Illinois to see which master's degree programs offered the best value experiences for public policy students with the aim of identifying those quality schools that are more affordable than some of their counterparts.

Our ranking of value is based on the quality of a program as defined in our per sticker price dollar. Specifically, our score for quality is discounted by the published tuition and fees charged by the given college. This gives the cost per unit of quality for each college. The more quality your dollar buys, the better the value.

In our regional and nationwide rankings, out-of-state tution and fees are used in our calculations. For statewide rankings, we use average in-state tuition and fees.

2023 Best Value Public Policy Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois

The colleges and universities below are the best value schools for public policy majors pursuing a master's degree.

Best Illinois Schools for Affordable Quality for a Master's in Public Policy

Our 2023 rankings named University of Illinois at Chicago the best value school in Illinois for public policy students working on their master’s degree. Located in the large city of Chicago, UIC is a public school with a fairly large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at UIC are $17,277 a year.

Read full report on Public Policy at University of Illinois at Chicago

Out of the 4 schools in Illinois that were part of this year’s ranking, Loyola University Chicago landed the # 2 spot on the list. Loyola Chicago is a large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Chicago.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Loyola Chicago are $19,894 per year.

Read full report on Public Policy at Loyola University Chicago

#3

DePaul University

Chicago, IL

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend DePaul University. It ranked #3 on our 2023 Best Value Public Policy Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois list. DePaul is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Chicago.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at DePaul are $18,341 per year.

Full Public Policy at DePaul University Report

#4

University of Chicago

Chicago, IL

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Chicago. It ranked #4 on our 2023 Best Value Public Policy Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois list. Located in the city of Chicago, UChicago is a private not-for-profit school with a fairly large student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at UChicago are $63,936 per year.

UChicago did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #2 on our Best Public Policy Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois list.

Read full report on Public Policy at University of Chicago

Best Value Public Policy Colleges in the Great Lakes Region

Explore all the Best Value Public Policy Schools in the Great Lakes Area or other specific states within that region.

State Degrees Awarded
Michigan 267
Ohio 37
Indiana 8
Wisconsin 29

Public Policy is one of 5 different types of programs to choose from.

Majors Similar to Public Policy

Related Major Annual Graduates
Social Work 58,326
Public Administration 16,905
Human Services 13,238
Community Organization & Advocacy 3,096
Other Public Administration 588

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 4 schools only.

  • The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
  • Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
  • Credit for the banner image above goes to The Official CTBTO Photostream.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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